About the book

Who was Marcus Aurelius?

The Greek philosopher Plato imagined in his dialogue Politeia a utopia of an ideal state, in which only philosophers should become emperors. Well, what actually is a philosopher? Philosophy is a term that can be interpreted very differently. In Plato’s sense, it is about the love for wisdom and the question as a tool towards knowledge. According to Plato, only people who intensively and courageously dealt with ethical and logical questions were capable of becoming good leaders.

One such leader was Marcus Aurelius, who was born in Rome in 121 AD. Because of his private writings, the “Meditations”, he also became an important philosopher of the ancient world, precisely of the school of the Stoa. Marcus Aurelius was destined early for a high political role in Rome. He owed this not only to his privileged origin, but also to his special nature. Even as a young man, he was stringently guided by the wisdom of the Greek philosophers, who hundreds of years earlier had embarked on a search for provable truths about the world and courageously admitted that they were often in the dark.

Marcus Aurelius aspired to a simple life. As a young man, he slept on the cold floor as a matter of principle, dressed plainly, and put a lot of thought into what it meant to live a good life in terms of community. In 161 A.D. he was crowned Emperor of Rome, making him the most powerful man in the world. The Roman Empire had reached gigantic size at that time and faced tremendous political challenges: plagues, unrest, war. The Roman territory, always enlarged by subjugation, was attacked from many sides by other peoples who felt justifiably deprived of their own territory.

Instead of creating a comfortable fortress for himself in Rome and conducting his business from a safe distance, he joined the roman soldiers at the front. He lived a large part of his nearly 20-year reign in tents in military camps and from there he wrote a fascinating and highly popular piece of world literature: The “Meditations”.

The book is a loose collection of aphorisms, thoughts and reflections that mirror his inner self. Marcus did not intend to publish these notes, but saw them as a kind of conversation with himself. In the Meditations, he addresses the word to himself, writing small and highly poetic notes that were meant to help him deal with his difficult fate. In doing so, he did not complain about his tasks, but always exhorts himself to modesty, trust in a higher energy and humility before fate.

There is no way to sugarcoat it: The man from Rome made brutal decisions during his time as emperor, was confronted with many ethical dilemmas and was also responsible for thousands of deaths. He is also said to have shared responsibility for the persecutions of Christians at the time. Nevertheless, Marcus Aurelius has been revered by people all over the world since ancient times. He goes down in history as a person who maintained an ethically reflected, steadfast attitude in the face of the greatest challenges. His writings are timeless and revered by people around the world: Bill Clinton, JK Rowling and many more.